Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

Henri Rouart (by 1905; sale: Galerie Manzi-Joyant, Paris, 9-11 December 1912, lot 174)
Leonard Gow, London (sale: Christie's, London, 28 May 1937, lot 39)
Reid & Lefevre, London (purchased at the above sale)
Charles Goldman (sale: Sotheby's, New York, 21 March 1962, lot 57)
Purchased at the above sale by the parents of the present owner

Paris, Galerie Schmit, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot dans les collections privées, 1996, no. 42, illustrated in the catalogue
Geneva, Musée Rath, Corot en Suisse, 2010-11, no. 92, illustrated in the catalogue

Alfred Robaut, L'Œuvre de Corot: catalogue raisonné et Illustré, Paris, 1905, vol. III, p. 298, no. 2148 bis, catalogued (erroneously catalogued as on canvas); p. 299, illustrated
Claude Bernheim de Villers, Corot, peintre de figures, Paris, 1930, no. 323

The following condition report has been prepared by Hamish Dewar Ltd., of 13 & 14 Mason's Yard, London SW1Y 6BU: UNCONDITIONAL AND WITHOUT PREJUDICE Structural Condition The artist's panel has been cradled and this is ensuring a secure and stable support. Paint surface The paint surface has an even varnish layer and inspection under ultra-violet light shows an area of retouching parallel to the upper horizontal edge and small scattered retouchings around the framing edges. There are dark lines that are highlighted under ultra-violet light in the woman's hair and hat, and on the outlines of the painting on the easel but these seem to be the artist's original pigments. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in good and stable condition and no further work is required.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Painted circa 1870, Jeune femme jouant de la mandoline is a fine example of the classical spirit and poetry with which Corot imbued his finest figure paintings from the 1860s onwards. The pose and modelling of the figure evoke the iconic female figures of the Renaissance, tempered with a pensive intimacy drawn from the Dutch seventeenth-century masters.

The work relates to six other paintings, painted between 1865-70, of a girl in Italian dress seated before an easel in Corot's studio, now in the Musée d'Orsay (Robaut no. 1557), the National Gallery, Washington, D.C. (Robaut no. 1558; fig.1), the Louvre (Robaut no. 1559), the Museum of Art, Baltimore (Robaut no. 1559 bis), the collection of Spencer and Marlene Hays (Robaut no. 1560), and the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon (Robaut no. 1561), respectively. The girl in the present work wears the same costume and red ribbon in her hair as in the Louvre, Baltimore, and Washington pictures, with the difference that she faces the viewer rather than having her back turned, and plays, rather than simply holds, her instrument.

It was his trips to Italy in 1825-28, 1834 and 1843 that inspired Corot's distinctive Italian peasant girls. Corot enthused that: 'In them, I saw the beauty of life. This beauty is in every creature, it is everything which breathes and which is impregnated with light' (quoted in Marlborough Gallery, Corot, London, 1963, p. 9). While the present work was painted long after these sojourns, it was certainly painted from Corot's idealised memories of the Italian women he encountered in his travels.

For the most part, Corot seems not to have intended his figural works for public exhibition; he exhibited only four during his lifetime. Instead, he found a ready market for them among discerning friends and collectors, who recognized their true sophistication. Corot's achievements as a figure painter were acknowledged by his contemporaries. One of the greatest lights of the Impressionist movement, Edgar Degas, even stated when pressed to agree about Corot's skills in drawing a tree: 'Yes, indeed... and I find his figures yet superior' (quoted in Alfred Robaut, L'Œuvre de Corot, Paris, 1905, p. 254).